April 7, 1889
As the use of electricity becomes more general there is increased curiosity to learn what it is. It is considered a mysterious force, because in its normal condition it cannot be seen. The wire which conveys the current gives no manifestation of the energy which is passing through it. Just as the poet said: “We take no note of time save from its loss.” So with electricity, it must be measured as it flies. It is true however, that its laws are perfectly understood. Is it necessary that we should know what it is? We know that it is the attraction of the earth. It holds the atoms of the earth together and enables us to perform all of the operations which make up our daily life. It is, however, a mystery, but its laws are all well known, and if we violate them by jumping off a precipice should we consider the force of gravity necessarily dangerous? Steam is also something of a mystery. It has been familiar to us since the dawn of civilization, yet how many people know that it is transparent and therefore invisible until it comes in contract with the air.
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March 31, 1889
The Springfield News says—Baxter, the English clergyman-prophet, fixes March 5, 1897, as the day on which the earth will be destroyed by fire. This will enable Harrison to serve out his second term and have one day left in which to enjoy a peaceful and well earned repose.
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March 26, 1889
A Society Woman’s Protest Against Late Hours for Entertaining.
Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren enters a vigorous protest against the wholesale adoption of English fashions and especially the adoption of late hours for entertaining. She does not consider it any reason for us, who enjoy so much glorious sunlight, to shut it out from our drawing rooms in the daytime, or, worse yet, to choose the most somber hours of the night for our choicest entertainments, because those unfortunates who live in a murky, foggy, rainy atmosphere may find it more agreeable to do so.
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March 16, 1889
Some of the Marvelous Deeds Ascribed Him by Ancient Scribes.
The reader unfamiliar with Catholic, especially Irish Catholic, literature is apt to fall into the error that the legends and stories of St. Patrick are essential parts of the Catholic faith. They are no more so—by much less so—than the popular jokes credited to Abraham Lincoln and the popular stories about him are essential parts of American history. Aside from her authentic lives of the saints, neither affirms or denies. The legends are to be read and admired for their beauty or humor—the amount of truth in them is simply a matter of historic criticism. A few instances are here given:
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March 10, 1889
A marriage that was attended with numerous difficulties because of scarcity of money, came off in Cincinnati a day or two ago. After paying for a license (75 cents), the groom had but 25 cents left. He collected enough from spectators for the magistrate’s fee, but another obstacle arose.
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March 1, 1889
Forests that resounded with the noise of shell and shot during the war.
Dalton, Ga., Feb. 19- Twenty-five years, nearly, have passed since the last shot was fired in the American civil war, and one would think that the local marks of the great struggle would now be effaced. But it was too mighty a contest for its scars to be rapidly healed and in almost every section of the south the traveler may yet see the signs of the storm. The contrast between the signs of past war and present peace are in some cases amusing in many saddening and in all curious and romantic. In the densest thickets of northwestern Georgia and the adjacent sections of Tennessee and Alabama the hunter, with difficulty forcing his way through a forest, will come suddenly upon heavy earthworks; the natural wear of the elements has been prevented by matted roots and vines, and on the red earth embankments, where brave men once struggled, trees a foot in diameter are growing.
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